Close My Eyes by Sophie McKenzie

In Close My Eyes, Geniver Loxley lost her daughter Beth 8 years ago. She’s still trying to come to terms with Beth being stillborn. When a stranger shows up at her front door stating that Beth didn’t die all those years ago and is alive, Gen goes into a tail spin. Against the advice of her husband, Art, her family and her friends, Gen is determined to uncover the truth and find out what happened to Beth.

I really enjoyed this one. It’s quite an unusual story with several twists and turns that I didn't see coming at all. I really liked how the story unfolded; not quite linear with bits and pieces of the back story revealed slowly. This style added lots of suspense to the book and had me quickly turning pages dying to know what would happen next.

I liked Beth and really felt sorry for her. I didn't really like any of the other characters, though. However, I don't think I was supposed to love them all anyway. Lorcan, Art's old friend, was okay, but his motives weren't always clear. If I were Geniver, I wouldn't have trusted him. Morgan, Art's sister, was definitely a piece of work. Was she supposed to be mentally ill? Because that's the way it came across. As for Art, Geniver's husband, I didn't quite understand him. I wanted him to grow a backbone when it came to Morgan.

There were a couple of things about the storyline that I didn't like. I didn’t like the short sections written in italic type. I understood what the author was trying to do, but it didn’t work for me. It was obvious is was someone younger or at least immature “speaking”, but they didn’t come across as believable. The other thing I didn't like was the revelation near the ending. Parts of it were a bit too odd, twisted and mean spirited to be believable. I don't want to give too much away, so I'll leave it at that.

The last couple of pages were pretty chilling and compelling. All things considered, it was a good way to end the story.

I must have missed the reference to the title, but for the life of me I can’t figure out why the book has the title that it does.

This book might make a good book club book. Parts of the story are sure to bring about some interesting discussions. It's probably not for those highbrow literary book clubs, though.

Recommended. I'd definitely read another book by this author.

For more information about this book, please visit Simon & Schuster's UK website.

I'd like to thank those nice people at Simon & Schuster UK for this review copy.

Close My Eyes by Sophie McKenzie, Simon & Schuster UK ©2013. ISBN 9781471111723(Trade paperback), 390p.